Linebacker Bruce Irvin’s future with the Seahawks has been called into question a couple of times this offseason.
The first came when the Seahawks declined to exercise their option on his contract for the 2016 season, which led to a negative reaction from Irvin and sets him up to become a free agent next year. The second was when Irvin said he is “going to be in Atlanta next season” because that’s where he wants to play, although Seahawks coach Pete Carroll said that Irvin didn’t actually say that.
There was also some trade chatter mixed in there, all of which added up to paint a picture of Irvin in a different uniform come next year. Irvin is starting to play a slightly different tune about how he’d like things to play out, however.
“I have one year left. I would love to be in Seattle. That was the team that gave me a chance when nobody else did,” Irvin said, via Tony Garcia of NFL Media. “A lot of people told me I wasn’t a first-round pick, but Pete and [General Manager] John Schneider took a chance on me, so like I said I would love to be there, but I’m just going to go out here, I’ve been working my butt off, I’m going to go out here and have the biggest year of my career next year.”
If Irvin does have the biggest year of his career, it might make the Seahawks want him back but it may also guarantee a trip to another team. Seattle has handed out extensions to several key players recently and still needs to take care of Bobby Wagner and Russell Wilson, which probably leaves a smaller slice of the pie for Irvin than he’d be able to find with another team off a good season.